ing to their rank. That is to say, the reward of these servants is found within their duties. Just as man is nourished by air, water, light, and food, and receives pleasure from them, so are the angels nourished by the varieties of remembrance, glorification, praise, worship, knowledge, and love of God, and they take pleasure in them. For, since they are created out of light, light is sufficient for their sustenance. Fragrant scents, even, which are close to light, are a sort of nourishment for them which they enjoy. Indeed, good spirits take pleasure in sweet smells.

Furthermore, present in the tasks that the angels perform at the command of the One Whom they worship, in the work they accomplish for His sake, in the service they discharge in His name, in the supervision they execute through His favour, in the honour they gain through their connection with Him, in the immaculateness they attain through studying His dominion in both its outer face and its face which looks to Him, and in the ease they find through beholding the manifestations of His beauty and glory, is such sublime bliss that the human mind cannot comprehend it and one who is not an angel cannot perceive it.

One sort of the angels are worshippers, and the worship of another sort is work. Of the angels of the earth, the sort that are workers have a kind of human occupation. If one may say so, one type are like shepherds and another like farmers. That is to say, the face of the earth resembles a general farm and an appointed angel supervises all the species of animals within it at the command of the Glorious Creator, and with His permission, for His sake and through His power and strength. And for each species of animal there is a lesser angel who is is appointed to act as a special shepherd.

The face of the earth is also a place of cultivation; all the plants grow in it. There is an angel charged with supervising them in the name of God Almighty and through His power, and there are angels who are lesser than him and who worship and glorify God by supervising particular species. The Archangel Michael (Upon whom be peace), who is one of the bearers of the throne of sustenance, is the most important overseer of these.

The angels who are in the position of shepherd and farmer do not bear any resemblance to human beings, for their supervision is purely for the sake of Almighty God, and in His name and through His power and command. Their supervision consists only in beholding the manifestations of dominicality in the species where they are employed; studying the manifestations of power and mercy in it; making known to that species the divine commands by way of a sort of inspiration; and in some way ordering the voluntary actions of the species.

Their supervision of the plants in the field of the earth in particular consists in representing the plants’ glorification in the angelic tongue; pro-